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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

News Nuggets 842


DAYLEE PICTURE: The "infinity pool" from a skyscraper overlooking downtown Singapore.  From National Geographic.

Iran’s Growing State of Desperation (Fareed Zakaria) from the Washington Post
"...the real story is that Iran is weak and getting weaker. Sanctions have pushed its economy into a nose-dive. The political system is fractured and fragmenting. Abroad, its closest ally and the regime of which it is almost the sole supporter — Syria — is itself crumbling. The Persian Gulf monarchies have banded together against Iran and shored up their relations with Washington. ... The price of food staples has soared 40 percent the past few months, Reuters reported this week."

Afghan President Karzai Supports Direct U.S.-Taliban Talks from the Washington Post
"Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday endorsed direct U.S.-Taliban talks and the establishment of a Taliban office in Qatar to facilitate negotiations."
It seems that some of the key obstacles to peace in Afghanistan are starting to shift.  Hopefully, Obama can seize whatever opportunity there is here to create a clear pathway out of Afghanistan by 2014 if not sooner.

'Citizens United' Backlash: Montana Supreme Court Upholds State's Corporate Campaign Spending Ban from the Huffington Post
"The Montana Supreme Court has put itself on a collision course with the U.S. Supreme Court by upholding a century-old state law that bans corporate spending in state and local political campaigns."

The Danger in a Declining Middle Class (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"Francis Fukuyama’s article in the January edition of Foreign Affairs offers a good introduction to what may be the biggest political issue of 2012 — the decline of the middle class in the United States and around the world. Without this middle class, Fukuyama argues, liberal democracy loses its anchor."

Washington State's Gov. Gregoire Proposes Legislation to Legalize Gay Marriage from the Seattle Times
"Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday said she'll put forward legislation to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples. The proposal will be introduced during the legislative session that starts Monday. If it's approved, Washington would become the seventh state to legalize gay marriage."

Obama NLRB Recess Appointments Thrill Labor, Infuriate Business from the Huffington Post
"Doubling down on President Barack Obama's bold recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the White House announced Wednesday that Obama would also use his recess powers to fill three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency charged with enforcing labor law."

W.H. Sees Political Win in Cordray Move from Politico
"Three years after pledging a new era of post-partisan cooperation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday declared war with congressional Republicans by unilaterally installing his nominee to head a new consumer protection bureau. And the White House sees only political gold in doing so."

Not Your Father’s Republican Party (Norman J. Ornstein) from the New York Times
"There is no doubt that Republicans are fragmented now as they move formally to try to choose a presidential nominee. ... The fact is that the dinosaur moderate Republican wing of the party has no home right now."

Rivals Seek to Rally Right Against Mitt Romney from Politico
"[...] it was a triumph that didn’t feel very triumphant. ... the Iowa results shined a light on a party that — while unified in its disdain for President Barack Obama — is increasingly divided on lines of ideology and style. ... "

Dems Can Barely Contain Their Glee Over Iowa Results from Talking Points Memo
"It’s hard to say who was more excited Tuesday night: Rick Santorum, who came within eight votes of beating Mitt Romney or the Democrats watching on their couches at home. The theory from the Democrats: if that’s the best Romney can do, the general election is looking better and better."

The Great Conservative Sell-Out (Ban Shapiro) from Townhall.com
"The last time a Republican candidate captured the nomination for the presidency by winning Iowa with this low a vote total, his name was Bob Dole. A couple of years later, he was hawking Viagra. Nonetheless, the word is out: The fix is in. Unbelievably, not a single anti-Romney television ad was run in the state of Iowa."
"Not a single ad..." Wow.  What kind of a contest was it then?  Can one really say that Romney was "tested"?  

Mitt Romney Out of Control (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post  
"If this is Mitt Romney’s idea of a victory rally, one shudders to think what would have happened if he had lost the Iowa caucuses. ... His victory rally was a disaster."

A House Divided (Daniel Henninger) from the the Wall Street Journal 
"As is its habit, the Republican Party is trying to affirm this eternal truth one more time. Much as it benefits the incumbent president, there is little point in not admitting the obvious: The Republican divider is the party's front-runner, Mitt Romney."
I'll have to say -- for someone whose pathway to the GOP nomination seems assured, Romney's not gettin' much love from his party -- even from the establishment talking heads who are, in essence, his "base" right now.

Romney Lands With A Thud in New Hampshire from Talking Points Memo  
"Mitt Romney may be dominating the New Hampshire polls, but his first major event upon returning to the Granite State from his eight-vote Iowa victory wasn’t exactly a triumphant welcome home."

Multifront Attack Awaits Romney in New Hampshire from the Wall Street Journal
"Mitt Romney woke from his photo-finish win in Iowa facing two new forces that will shape the next stage of the fight for the Republican presidential nomination: the rise of a fresh social-conservative champion in Rick Santorum and the emergence of a highly motivated foe in Newt Gingrich."

Newt the Destroyer (David Corn) from Mother Jones Magazine
Newt is FINALLY devolving back to his true form and (hopefully) assuming the role I had always hoped he would assume: a heat-seeking missile aimed at Romney!  May The Force be with you!!
"Gingrich is now on a single-minded mission to detonate Mitt Romney's presidential prospects. Will he blow up the GOP in the process?"
Corn makes a number of interesting speculations in this piece.  Robert Wright from the Atlantic discusses this analysis further HERE.

Finished Assessing, Rick Perry Ready to Dive Back into South Carolina from the Atlantic
"National Journal's Ron Fournier and Rebecca Kaplan confirm beyond the tweet that Rick Perry is staying in the race after talking to an anonymous campaign official."
My take on Perry's "reassessment": On caucus night, Perry was ready to throw in the towel.  Between then and Wednesday noon, he and the Romney people struck some kind of a deal where Perry stays in the race thru at least the South Carolina primary.  Perry's presence only benefits Romney.  What will Perry get?  Romeny could offer him all kinds of goodies -- at the very least footing the bill for part of Perry's campaign and, who knows, some role in a Romney administration (although why anyone would want this dolt in their administration is perplexing.  How about Secretary of State -- or better yet, Secretary of Education!).  Probably more than any other politician in the race, Perry has come out greatly diminished and his team must anticipate that, if Perry runs again anywhere, he will get much tougher challengers than he's had in the past.  Perry would certainly demonstrate a few grains of wisdom by looking for some other non-elected runway to land on after what will go down as one of the biggest busts in GOP nominating history!

CHINESE CULTURE NUGGET!!
China's War Against Harry Potter (Stephen M. Walt) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Jintao's worried that Western powers are waging a cultural war against China, and that advanced Western weaponry like Lady Gaga, Harry Potter, and the Transformers franchise are eating away at the cultural foundations of Chinese unity. According to various news sources, he has called upon Communist Party leaders to expand China's own cultural output and achieve a global cultural influence "commensurate with its international status.""
Let me say up front that I think it is sad that the Chinese premier has such an inferiority complex about HIS OWN culture that he thinks it needs some kind of "help" from party bureaucrats.  Chinese culture is amazing on so many fronts.  But, more to the point here, his view is SO primitively ham-fisted and instrumentalist as to take one's breath away.  As Walt suggests here, Hu's complaints reveal him (and I suspect most of his leadership) as (1) deeply out of touch with the information age we live in now; and (2) of a mindset still fundamentally trapped in the Maoist era of the 1950s and 1960s.  Walt's entire response is worth reading.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS NUGGET!!
Best International Relations Books of 2011 from the journal Foreign Affairs
"As this year came to a close, the editors at Foreign Affairs asked each of the reviewers to choose the three best of 2011. Here they are."

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